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AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

washingtonpost.com

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Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#51

Post by phs318u »

mystifyingpoi wrote: post #15
skeeter2020 wrote: post #2

I feel this is a symptom of poor meetings, where they are used for information exchange (which I think should come before the meeting) instead of collaboration and problem solving. You could save your time and a bunch of AI-generated notes you'll never read with the simple rule of "no agenda, no attenda". Remote has allowed us to adopt meeting policies that would never exist in-person: giant, long, back-to-back sessi…

> opportunity to pee Social pressure is still a thing for some unfortunately. Or maybe memories from school creep in. Just go for a pee.

If I have back-to-back meetings, I'll leave a few minutes early (with apologies) and also apologise to the next meeting if I'm late. If anyone calls me out, I'll apologetically claim "biological imperative". If they don't understand, I tell them that my bowels wait for no one. That is enough to get everyone to move on. No one wants to talk about someone else's bowels.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#52

Post by mistrial9 »

apwell23 wrote: post #23

> “We’re moving into a world where nothing will be forgotten,” Allie K. Miller I am constantly amazed by allie K miller positioning herself as leader and visionary in every hot trend.

she is a CEO and Fortune 500 AI advisor! says her self-asserted promotional material

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#55

Post by 8note »

pj_mukh wrote: post #16
jawns wrote: post #4

I bet there are a bunch of people in upper management who hear about this phenomenon and think that employees are skipping meetings to slack off (appearing to do work but they're actually playing Mario Kart). In reality, it's more likely that they're being judged on their attendance of BS meetings, but if they attend the BS meetings, they won't be able to make the BS deadlines they're responsible for hitting. So they…

Having had been on both sides of this coin, I agree a lot of managers mis-manage meetings. But then there's those engineers who don't show up to meetings and then a month later come to you with a "I don't know how we're deciding on some of these critical product features" and I don't know how to tell them its because they skipped some meetings where they could've been part of that discussion.

but i didnt get invited to the meeting in the first place! and i dont think my management chain was either!

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#56

Post by bix6 »

8note wrote: post #54
bix6 wrote: post #53

I was recently in a 1:1 meeting where the person I met with had 3 separate AI note takers join. What in tarnation?!?

which one gave the best results? can you share?

Not sure, they used them and I didn’t ask for any. I still take my notes manually.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#57

Post by 9283409232 »

I'm going to buck the trend I see in this thread and say that the AI notetaker we've used has been helpful. After the meeting it sends a list of action items and meeting highlights that links to the timestamp in the meeting where we were talking about it in case we need to refer back. I've found it nice to have.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#58

Post by david-gpu »

pj_mukh wrote: post #16
jawns wrote: post #4

I bet there are a bunch of people in upper management who hear about this phenomenon and think that employees are skipping meetings to slack off (appearing to do work but they're actually playing Mario Kart). In reality, it's more likely that they're being judged on their attendance of BS meetings, but if they attend the BS meetings, they won't be able to make the BS deadlines they're responsible for hitting. So they…

Having had been on both sides of this coin, I agree a lot of managers mis-manage meetings. But then there's those engineers who don't show up to meetings and then a month later come to you with a "I don't know how we're deciding on some of these critical product features" and I don't know how to tell them its because they skipped some meetings where they could've been part of that discussion.

It is helpful to communicate in advance what is the specific agenda of each meeting, so that people can make an informed decision on whether to attend.

Also, it may be helpful to have the meeting organizer send meeting notes after every meeting, including action items assigned to specific people. The notes don't need to be extensive, but there better be an executive summary of what decisions were made, if any, and any unexpected roadblocks that were found.

That's how things were done at one of the mega corps where I was employed and it worked great.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#59

Post by david-gpu »

apwell23 wrote: post #19
jawns wrote: post #4

I bet there are a bunch of people in upper management who hear about this phenomenon and think that employees are skipping meetings to slack off (appearing to do work but they're actually playing Mario Kart). In reality, it's more likely that they're being judged on their attendance of BS meetings, but if they attend the BS meetings, they won't be able to make the BS deadlines they're responsible for hitting. So they…

> it's more likely that they're being judged on their attendance of BS meetings Some middle manager types in my company track emoji reactions to their messages in slack. I got written up for it, no joke. That was easy to automate though.

I would be updating my resume and talking to old colleagues. What a load of BS you have to deal with, man.

Re: AI note takers are flooding Zoom calls as workers opt to skip meetings

#60

Post by david-gpu »

LiquidSky wrote: post #20
skeeter2020 wrote: post #2

I feel this is a symptom of poor meetings, where they are used for information exchange (which I think should come before the meeting) instead of collaboration and problem solving. You could save your time and a bunch of AI-generated notes you'll never read with the simple rule of "no agenda, no attenda". Remote has allowed us to adopt meeting policies that would never exist in-person: giant, long, back-to-back sessi…

>Remote has allowed us to adopt meeting policies that would never exist in-person: giant, long, back-to-back sessions with no purpose, plan or opportunity to pee. Oh, if only that had been true, but pointless, aimless meetings have been a plague forever. Maybe less so the no-peeing. But "no agenda, no attenda" only works if you're in a position to refuse. Often attending meetings is seen as part of the job, either fo…

After working for a company where every meeting had a clear agenda and meeting notes with action items were sent afterwards, I would never want to work in a place that didn't follow the same pattern.
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